Jump to content

New cichlid tank


cerebus
 Share

Recommended Posts

  • 2 weeks later...

I've been looking around a bunch of other boards, and most people there seem to feel that play sand is definitely NOT the way to go. They find it too light with particles that are too small, and it ends up ruining their filters, along with packing tightly. Quite a few posts about people tearing their tanks apart to suck out all the play sand and replacing it with pool filter sand. I actually went to Target themselves here in Calgary and paid $11.74 for two 50 lb bags (the receptionist said she wasn't supposed to sell less than 10 bags at a time, but I went looking for black sand and this was the best sand they had). They did have a nice dark crush, but I guess it was the 'raw material' that use for making other sands, too bad b/c it was almost black with probably 1-2 mm grain size.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I picked up some target playsand last weekend. I like it. I'm not too concerned with it ruining the filters as i keep a prefilter sponge on the uptake. And the sand is only 1" deep and its on a shell dwellers tank so i dont' think it will pack too much. BUt my tank is small, if i was doing something larger i might get bigger grained sand.

One thing was it did take forever to wash it :rolleyes: Prewashed my @$$ :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey Val,

I use pool filter sand in all of my tanks and I have AC with sponge prefilter similar to your setup I believe. I find that I still will have to periodically clean out the impeller shaft with a brush as sand gets in there. Using sand with AC filters requires some diligence as the impeller is in front of the substrate materials.

HTH, David.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I find that I still will have to periodically clean out the impeller shaft with a brush as sand gets in there.

I know some sand still gets in there but i clean out my filter about every 2nd water change. But i found that i had sand in the impeller even when i was using black sand(i think it was made by ehiem) especially made for aquariums.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...